It wasn’t quite the shootout I expected, but Central Michigan won a defensive battle over Ohio to claim the 2009 MAC Championship last night. An early turnover from Dan LeFevour in the red zone kept the game scoreless for much of the first quarter, but their offense got on track and eventually led into halftime 17-7. LeFevour surpassed the NCAA record for total career touchdowns in the process.
After the half, both teams exchanged field goals, and that would be all- the defenses turned it up a notch, and Ohio couldn’t get a good drive going, and the game ended at 20-10.
Central Michigan ends the year having beaten all 9 MAC opponents they faced, 11-2 overall. They now await their bowl placement- the GMAC Bowl has the first selection (and my vote, since I’m planning to be in attendance and want to see LeFevour’s final game), while the Little Caesar’s and International are still possibilities.
Meanwhile, Ohio rides into bowl season at 9-4, 7-2 in the league, and is guaranteed to go to one of the MAC affiliated bowls that doesn’t select Central Michigan.
In other news, ESPN is reporting that Notre Dame will not accept a bowl invitation this year. This is understandable, as they clearly did not want to take the risk of losing to a Central Michigan or other mid-major team.
Today at noon we have the Conference USA championship game, and then the BCS Conference games play out in the later afternoon and evening. I won’t be able to live-tweet the CUSA game, but I’ll get a recap post up in the evening if I can, and then tomorrow is all about the bowl bids. If you’re wondering about the implications of the other title games and the Big East showdown, I recapped that here earlier this week. Also, my C-USA preview went up yesterday.
Have a great day of college football, and we’ll be back tonight and tomorrow as the postseason picture takes shape.